From hell to heaven on earth

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Early Easter Sunday, Iselin, Tom and I grabbed a taxi to the airport, and boarded our pane to Cebu. The plane was surprisingly short and we got straight in a taxi to the pier, and within 5 minutes we were on the ferry bound for Bohol. To our relief we were on a study, normal ferry made of metal and everything. The morning had gone by in a flash of different forms of travel, we threw our bags down on the roof of the deck and lay, barefoot in a heap on the floor, in true backpacker style.

Bang, Bang, Bang we were off the ferry, on a tricycle to the bus station and on an hour bus bound for Carmen, the central town of the island, closest to the Chocolate hills I had been eager to see since my arrival in the Philippines.

Stepping off the bus in the ‘town’ of Carmen, we wondered what we had done. It was a very dusty, dirty street with maybe twenty buildings, if that, scattered about between the cracked and rusty motorbikes and barefooted children in the street.

Too hungry to care, at 5:30pm we grabbed our first meal and at a very local eatery which turned out to be a great choice. The female owner advised us to stay at the Chocolate hills resort which was build in the surrounds of the largest mound which forms the national park of strange and wonderful hills. She called us some motorbikes, we held on tight and headed off to the hotel.

The view on the way up the hill was outstanding. Hundred of these strange formations jutted out of the ground, all a very similar size and shape. The hotel was nice, clean and had air-con. It was so good to be travelling in a group to keep the costs down, so we all jumped into the one big bed and started (and quickly finished) our next bottle of Tanduay rum and fell asleep together watching films in preparation for our early sun-rise start.

At 5:30am, while I was meant to be catching a flight back to Hong Kong, I was watching the sun rise over the chocolate hills on the steep mound at the centre of the resort. We got a good view of the Chocolate Hills however the photos don’t do it justice. We quickly decided to head back to bed at 6am and plan our next move on the island of Bohol.

After a rubbish breakfast, we booked motorbikes back to the bus station at Carmen. We soon found out there were no buses to the beach area of Anda and had to settle for the island off the south west coast of Bohol on the next bus.

It was totally full and we opted to sit on the roof. I had a thoroughly enjoyable time, there was a lot of room up there so we all lay down and chilled in the beautiful sunlight, enjoying the view and listening to music. It rained a little every now and then but it was a welcome break from the scorching sun; it was wonderful and I was blissfully happy.

When we arrived we found a cheap bungalow for 1200 between us and quickly started on the next Tanduay. We immediately took a dip in the warm ocean, pretty wrecked from the wonderful rum after a few short hours we headed to a nightclub and danced the night away in another brilliant evening.
Very surprised and grateful to have another day without a hangover, Tom and I started on our 5th bottle of Tanduay (in 4 days) at the tender hour of 11am; we jumped straight in the sea, cuddling up in the warm water, swimming out to an offshore boat, flipping and somersaulting off the side. We returned to the beach and spent a few hours swapping stories and music before we swaggered back to the bungalow, totally wasted at 3pm.

Genius Tom had packed his hammock so he set it up just outside the door and we relaxed in the sun, falling asleep to more music in our drunken states. At 5:30pm Islein, woke us for some lunch/dinner which was lovely at the beach. We cracked open our 6th bottle of Tanduay and headed out to join the party on the beach.

I felt very ecstatic all night; the company was great, the music was fantastic and the drinks were brilliant! We chatted away to some Swiss, Germans and Filipinos before heading in at 2:30am.

The next day I congratulated myself for having no hangover once again by going for a little walk and grabbing some food while waiting for the others to wake up. When they did, we grabbed a car to Aliannas beach; a beautiful, quiet and very local place with shallow warm sea and palms all around.

We spent the whole day relaxed, swimming, drinking, listening to music and laughing. I can’t quite describe it; not too much happened, but it was probably the best day of my travels so far. We formed a line on a sun lounger and gave each other massages. We disposed of the 7th Tanduay, picked up an 8th and caught the back of a pick-up truck back to Alona beach, very content with our fantastic day out.

On our return we grabbed a gorgeous meal at a fish bar overlooking the sea. Islein and I booked a little boat for 6am the following day for a dolphin and island hopping trip and decided we would leave Tom to dive. We moved further down to watch the band again from the previous night and drank a whole lot more.
Totally wasted at this point, Tom proposed a dip in the ocean and we floated out to watch the stars, which were utterly brilliant, stretching low near the horizon. Surrounded by the glittering night-plankton under the moonlight, this was truly one of the most fantastic experiences of my life.

When we returned, Islein had made friends with an Israeli guy named Amos and he suggested heading back to our porch to continue the party and Islein and I invited him out to the boat ride in the early morning. Tom and I retired to the room, before we snuggled into bed and fell in a dizzy sleep.

Waking up at 5:15am the next morning was the final straw for my tired and weary body. A Sam Hearnshaw record had been smashed with being drunk every waking moment for the previous 7 days and I finally felt like shit.

Drunkenly stumbling down the steps towards the beach, we met Amos and clambered onto the rickety, old boat. After 40 minutes we were deep in the wavy ocean, scanning the horizon for the leaps of the dolphins. I eventually spotted two dolphins, following one of the ten or so boats in front of us. Out of nowhere, three of the beautiful creatures bounded out of the ocean in sync together, another spectacular moment to rival all others.

The next few hours weren’t quite so good. After throwing up over the side of the boat three times in 45 minutes, we arrived at Balicasan Island at 8am, a beautiful square kilometre of white sand dotted with jungle. I felt much better after laying in the sand, swimming in the coral studded ocean and talking for hours and hours. Somehow we all ended up very drunk AGAIN and at 2pm we decided to move onto our next and last stop of the day, Virgin Island.

The next boat trip there was surprisingly a lot of fun. Islein and I sat on the very front of the bow with both feet dangling in the water and leaping up and down in the waves, getting soaked! I felt 110% again, full of the joy and wonder of the world, then out of nowhere, a brilliant white stretch of sand, only 2m wide and perhaps 500m in length laid out before us and I knew this was what life was all about.

When our feet touched the sand we each exclaimed that this was immediately the most beautiful place that each of us had ever witnessed. I won’t even waste time trying to describe it, because it wouldn’t do it justice. We lay out in the shallow, starfish-riddled, crystal clear and beautifully warm waters. What a day. After sitting on a sharp and spiky starfish and being stung three times by an undisclosed animal, we crawled up onto the sand and were approached by a family of friendly Filipinos for some beers and to sample their odd fishy dishes they were mixing over a fire. We had a wonderful time getting to know the people. We talked of education marriage and love, hopes for the future and stories of the past, it was awesome. We invited them to join us on the beach for the live music and a few drinks on us at 8pm that evening.

In true Bohol style, we ended our relaxing and thoroughly enjoyable week in Bohol with our 9th and 10th Tanduay bottles, snuggled over a beach campfire at 5am, and I took great pleasure in every single second spent there.

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Photos

The Backpackers
True

Chocolate Hills
Misty dawn

Spikey bastards
on my ass

Comments

[ztirf]

tanduay
are you drinking the lapad tanduay? the 150 ml or so one? try the Tanduay Superior too! Keep on enjoying the Philippines